Tackling the trail
Five-day, 273-kilometre ride for Parkinson’s Disease starts Tuesday in Tignish
Of all the things she has learned about Parkinson’s disease in the four years since her diagnosis, what constantly rises to the top of the list for Natasha McCarthy is the importance of exercise.
“It is the only proven way to slow progression (of the disease),” explains the Mt. Albion, P.E.I. woman.
Knowing that, McCarthy said she spent nearly three years trying to persuade Dan Steele to get back to an exercise routine. Steele is the president of the P.E.I. Chapter of Parkinson Canada Foundation and McCarthy manages the chapter’s social media component.
She understood the exercise rut Steele had fallen into. “Another non-motor symptom that comes with the disease is apathy, so your motivation level decreases.
“I call it, ‘my get-up-and-go got up and left’ kind of thing. So that certainly doesn’t help in getting yourself moving again,” she acknowledged.
Last year, after Steele had to give up his job due to Parkinson’s progression, McCarthy suggested he’d have time to exercise.
Knowing that he had followed through with a plan to cycle across Canada following his diagnosis of young onset Parkinson’s, she joked that he’d have time to cycle the country again. “He looked at me and said, ‘Are you crazy? I haven’t exercised in six years.’”
So she suggested he bike across P.E.I, and offered to do the bike ride with him. They leave Tuesday morning, June 6, from Tignish, Kilometer Zero on P.E.I.’s Confederation Trail.
“I don’t think I thought he’d go for it,” she reflected.
So now the roles have changed. It’s Steele, the experienced cyclist, who is pushing McCarthy to practice her biking. She recently logged 40 kilometres in her longest ride so far and has the stiffness and the soreness as reminders of that outing.
They plan to cover the Confederation Trail in five days, aiming to complete their ride in Elmira, 273-kilometres from Tignish, on Saturday, June 10. They are determined to meet their objective, in spite of the anticipated stiffness, pain and tremors, all for the sake of raising awareness about Parkinson’s and, in particular, young onset Parkinson’s, and to raise funds for programs and services for persons in P.E.I. who have the disease. McCarthy, who turns 40 this year, and Steele, who turns 50, were both diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s.
“It’s still the same progressive disease that an older person gets; you just end up living with it longer,” she explained.
“Adrenalin is not a Parkie’s friend,” McCarthy added, acknowledging even the excitement of starting the bike ride could trigger tremors. Three other people with Parkinson’s disease will cover at least part of the trail with Steele and McCarthy, and another 11 cyclists have committed to covering sections of the route.
To donate: donate.parkinson.ca/goto/PEIPedallingParkies.